[fuzzyash]

I've had my ears cleaned twice in my life (not for doing impressions either)...  First time, an earwig crawled into my ear while I was asleep.  It was in there for a good month without me realizing until I couldn't hear that well out of that ear   The second time a fly flew into my other ear and decided to lay there and die...  That one stayed in there for less than 24 hours since I knew about it.  Moral of the story, don't let bugs get into your ear, they don't like to come out!

the inside of your ear must feel good

 

[tinyman392]

Quote:

the inside of your ear must feel good

 
They do now...  The earwig gave me a nice infection though (only reason why I knew it was there)...

 

[mosshorn]

Quote:

I've had my ears cleaned twice in my life (not for doing impressions either)...  First time, an earwig crawled into my ear while I was asleep.  It was in there for a good month without me realizing until I couldn't hear that well out of that ear   The second time a fly flew into my other ear and decided to lay there and die...  That one stayed in there for less than 24 hours since I knew about it.  Moral of the story, don't let bugs get into your ear, they don't like to come out!

 
 
Welp, I'm not sleeping without taped ears now.
 
At least until the 15th or so when I can just use the Tzar for ear safety

 

[tigon_ridge]

Ear canals have a natural way of cleaning itself. There is no need for regular manual cleaning, unless your ears' ability to clean itself is somehow compromised.
 
The proper way to use Qtips is as a moisture absorber after a swim/bath/shower. Dab the tip gently onto the wet areas of your inner ears. No scraping action is necessary. Ear wax is your ears' own way of protecting itself, so don't scrape it away, unless you have an excess buildup and know exactly how to clean your own ear; which certainly doesn't entail using Qtips as the scraping mechanism.

 

[tigon_ridge]

Quote:

I've had my ears cleaned twice in my life (not for doing impressions either)...  First time, an earwig crawled into my ear while I was asleep.  It was in there for a good month without me realizing until I couldn't hear that well out of that ear   The second time a fly flew into my other ear and decided to lay there and die...  That one stayed in there for less than 24 hours since I knew about it.  Moral of the story, don't let bugs get into your ear, they don't like to come out!

O_o!!

 

[serious7]

Quote:

Not to be rude, but What? How do you have that much gunk in your ears that you need to get it professionally removed? No offense intended, but don't you use q-tips?

I don't use q-tips because it is not recommended. Ears are naturally designed to let wax come out apparently.
 
Quote:

I've made a habit out of tilting my head to the side while I'm in the shower. Daily rinse of my ear canals right there. I use a q-tip to carefully dry them afterwards. 

 
I do this as well. Although, I don't use q-tips after. 
Quote:

theres a couple threads on head fi about ear cleaning to look up
basically theres syringing (big syringe that pumps water into your ears) or diluted hydrogen peroxide (better to buy the ones in store)
just go to a family doctor and get it syringed- doesnt take more than a couple mins for 2 pumps per ear to take out the ear wax
i find it completely bs that they charge $75 for something so simple- but dont try it without a professional as i think they are capable of blowing out your eardrums
if you want to do it yourself, i think better to get the premade hydrogen peroxide
and dont you q-tips to clean out your inner ears- they just push in and compact the ear wax more

Thanks for the advice (as well as to everyone else who posted but forgot to quote). I asked another audiologist who is highly recommended in the head-fi community and he said he does not charge for ear wax removal(which he does himself). The other audiologist who I went to who wanted to charge me $75 for ear wax removal doesn't actually do the proces herself. She wanted me to book multiple times (one to get the wax removed, one to actually get the impressions done). I simply wanted to confirm if this is a normal practice and get a second opinion.  Anyhow, the new audiologist who I contacted told me to use Debrox for a few days before coming to see him which should remove most of the wax if not all so that I don't have to reschedule again.  The sad thing is this new audiologist (who's highly recommended by NYC head-fi members) is booked full for the next 2 weeks. Going to play the waiting game now.

 

[anoxy]

Don't you see the irony? Ears are designed to let wax come out naturally, yet you have to make a special appointment to get it professionally removed? Not sure custom iems are going to work well in ears full of wax, so why not just carefully and competently do it yourself every so often. Beats paying to have it done.
 
But I digress.

 

[serious7]

Quote:

Don't you see the irony? Ears are designed to let wax come out naturally, yet you have to make a special appointment to get it professionally removed? Not sure custom iems are going to work well in ears full of wax, so why not just carefully and competently do it yourself every so often. Beats paying to have it done.
 
But I digress.

This is my first IEM that I've ever bought. Was not aware of the impact that wax has for IEM owners. I don't know what this "special appointment" that the audiologist asked me to do. I asked for details but she did not really provide much details about what the process is and why I specifically need it. The second audiologist whom I just spoke to told me that a "special appointment" is only needed if I need to be referred to an "ENT" specialist which is a level above an audiologist. The first audiologist who wanted me to book this "special appointment" did not mention anything about an ENT to me. To the best of my knowledge, ENT's are only required if there's severe wax issues but I may be wrong in saying this. My personal opinion is that the first audiologist just wanted to over charge me. I may be wrong but I'm going to try the Debrox method and see Audiologist #2. 

 

[tigon_ridge]

In my belief, there has been a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to many aspects of personal hygiene. It mostly comes down to the fact that people underestimate their own body's mechanisms of keeping itself free of pathogens. I've experimented with my own body in this regard, and gained some wonderful insights. I haven't washed my hair, or face in years. There's no funky smell. I'd noticed that each time after washing, my skin goes on overdrive mode and spews out a ton of oil. It's your body's way of maintaining homeostasis. The natural secretions, and in this specific case, ear wax, are your own body's natural defense mechanism. If you wash it away, especially with harsh chemicals, you wash away this mechanism. This "shocks" your skin into "panic mode" and overproducing secretions to compensate for that loss of natural defense. As a result, you've led yourself to think, "If I don't wash my face, it will become too oily and dirty. If I don't clean my ears, wax will buildup." No. It was your act of religious washing and cleaning that made your face overly oily, and your ears full of gunk. Ween yourself slowly off the excessive washing with chemicals. You'll be surprised of how your body remains clean without your daily rituals. I still wash certain parts of my body, but those are ones that can't quite take care of itself. You know what those are. lol

 

[anoxy]

tigon, I'm with you 100% on what you've said. I'm a fitness and nutrition major, so I very much understand and appreciate the body's natural abilities to maintain homeostasis. I don't use any soaps, shampoos, conditioners, or other cosmetics, except for toothpaste and floss. I don't use deoderant either. And I also follow a 'paleo' whole foods based diet free of anything processed. I firmly believe that proper diet can alleviate most, if not all 'ailments' we have been led to believe are normal. It's really sad how much of a capitalist agenda and marketing gimmicks are behind keeping you 'clean' and 'healthy'
 
But with all of that said, I still q-tip my ears gently every few days because I don't enjoy it sticking to my IEMs. We are a special variety of people who regularly stick things in their ears, so having a build up of wax is not optimal to our listening experience. If you wear circum/supra aural headphones, you can keep all that wax in there, but with IEMs, it's a different story.
 
But holy cow we have moved far away from appreciating Heir Audio. So back on topic, please.

 

[serious7]

Quote:

In my belief, there has been a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to many aspects of personal hygiene. It mostly comes down to the fact that people underestimate their own body's mechanisms of keeping itself free of pathogens. I've experimented with my own body in this regard, and gained some wonderful insights. I haven't washed my hair, or face in years. There's no funky smell. I'd noticed that each time after washing, my skin goes on overdrive mode and spews out a ton of oil. It's your body's way of maintaining homeostasis. The natural secretions, and in this specific case, ear wax, are your own body's natural defense mechanism. If you wash it away, especially with harsh chemicals, you wash away this mechanism. This "shocks" your skin into "panic mode" and overproducing secretions to compensate for that loss of natural defense. As a result, you've led yourself to think, "If I don't wash my face, it will become too oily and dirty. If I don't clean my ears, wax will buildup." No. It was your act of religious washing and cleaning that made your face overly oily, and your ears full of gunk. Ween yourself slowly off the excessive washing with chemicals. You'll be surprised of how your body remains clean without your daily rituals. I still wash certain parts of my body, but those are ones that can't quite take care of itself. You know what those are. lol

This is different for every person. When I didn't wash my face, I would get a lot of acne. When I washed my face with certain cleansers, it would give me even more acne. When I washed my face with a product called Spectro Gel, my acne dissapeared completely. Also, if I don't wash my hair, then my hair gets really itchy.

 

[tigon_ridge]

Well, even though I just bought gnarlsagan's ER-4S, I'm still interested in the sound of the Tzar 350. Someday, I'll hopefully get to try them.

 

[pspivak]

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Are they inserted correctly on the left side? For my left ear I needed to pull back the "flap" to insert my customs right.

 I have to give a slight twist with mine to in order to be sure they are all the way in and the ear is not folded.  Once seated they have very good isolation though not as great as triple flange tips on Etymotics.  That is a bit like comparing an apple and an orange though.

 

[FullCircle]

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This is my first IEM that I've ever bought. Was not aware of the impact that wax has for IEM owners. I don't know what this "special appointment" that the audiologist asked me to do. I asked for details but she did not really provide much details about what the process is and why I specifically need it. The second audiologist whom I just spoke to told me that a "special appointment" is only needed if I need to be referred to an "ENT" specialist which is a level above an audiologist. The first audiologist who wanted me to book this "special appointment" did not mention anything about an ENT to me. To the best of my knowledge, ENT's are only required if there's severe wax issues but I may be wrong in saying this. My personal opinion is that the first audiologist just wanted to over charge me. I may be wrong but I'm going to try the Debrox method and see Audiologist #2. 

 
 
       There are rules and regulations that conrtol the practice of audiology. Each state differs to some degree, but as per the legality of "cerumen management" it is considered "within the scope of practice" for audiologist to perform in many states. If you feel you are being charged for a bogus service, you can ask for "video otoscopy" to be done. Basically they take a camera and place in your ear canal and allow you to see your own ear canal, and an ENT would charge you for that, an Audiologist more than likely would not.
 
More than likely you are wrong about your assumption, as $75 to have the honor of cleaning out somone's ear gunk is joke.  Not to mention the liability that is placed on the shoulders of the audiologist, it just is not worth it. If anything, offering a client "one stop" service is a huge favor rather than an oppertunity to "stiff" someone.
 
 
Wizard

 

[fuzzyash]

But holy cow we have moved far away from appreciating Heir Audio. So back on topic, please.

even the Wizard loves talking about ear wax

back to it briefly, it really depends from person to person
i have an identical twin and i require ear cleaning maybe twice a year when my ear gets totally plugged up with ear wax (sometimes it just stays there as i swim quite a lot), whereas he doesnt seem to accumalate as much
even though we eat the same food, activities, almost everything the same